I Miss the Trails

I don't mind training when it's cold, snowy or even windy as long as it's not too insane. The biggest negative by far of winter running is not being able to get on the trails.

Except for the occasional race or run from a friend's house, it's been a number of years since I've run on the roads. Physically the pavement is just too hard at this stage in my running career. Mentally I much prefer the serenity of the woods to the tension of running only a few feet from tons of speeding steel.

There are many places to run trails in the local area, making it easy to run days at a time in different sylvan settings. With the trails covered in snow and ice it leaves few options to get off the pavement and away from traffic. Fortunately there are some secluded dirt (sometimes muddy and /or icy) roads that provide a haven when the trails are inaccessible. Still, they are roads so there is some traffic. Also, there aren't many of them so it's many days of running the same route over and over. I miss the variety of all my trail options. We're passed the middle of February and I'm keeping my eye out out for bare spots of ground in the woods.